Wow, I just got my furnace restarted after being down for 10 days with the warm temps outside. I read about some of you using charcol so I tried some. I got a big bag of the Red Oak Natural Wood Charcol. Its only 10 pounds but the stuff is feather lite compared to coal. I layered up about 3 inches deep with the charcol, soaked it with some lighter fluid and let it soak in for a few minutes. I ignited it and let it get burning good for about 10 minutes. I added about 10 pounds of coal and in another 10 minutes it was starting to burn, I added another 15 pounds and now about another 15 minutes later, its burning awesome!

The charcol worked very good for me Cut my fire starting time half compared to using wood and I had much better control of the fire thru the ignition process!! I used 1/2 the bag but probably could of did it with a 1/3. I'm sure with practice I could get at least 3 maybe 4 restarts with a 10 pound bag. I'll never use wood again, unless I have to

When I light my boiler I use cowboy charcoal. I put about 2-3" of coal on grates then in the middle and on top I lay about 4 handfulls of charcoal,then douse with lighter fluid wait a minuite then light. open the ash door close the load door and turn on the draft inducer and foil the baro.Walk away for 10 minutes and put coal on top till I dont see blue flames,close the door walk away for 10 more minutes,after doing this 3 times I throw 30 lbs. on top, close the door turn off draft inducer remove foil and turn combustion blower on, and in 1 1/2 hours 60 gallons of water is 180 degrees. Total of 80 lbs. of nut coal.Very easy and you dont really need half a bag just make sure you see red embers from the cowboy charcoal.

I started my Alaska Kodiak last weekend, and I've always been lucky starting it since I got it. I always use charcoal, and am getting better at it by LEAVING IT ALONE FOR 12 HOURS after starting it. My biggest enemy in the past was impatience. Coal fires like to be left alone, not poked and shaken until they're established.

This year, since we bought a chiminea for outside, I have an excess of store-bought fire starters. I think they're sawdust blocks with wax mixed in. Anyway, I used a few pieces of these under the charcoal to keep things burning until they gassed off, and to my surprise the long burning flame kept the soot from forming on the window.

When I started it, it was 28 degrees overnight. It's now 60 degrees overnight, and the windowstats are coming in handy. Cheap way to keep the chill out of the house!

I use the cheater approach for starting stove coal 1. get your fire started get it as hot as you can safely take it my stack temp gets well over 550F when I start but it drops rappidly when I add coal 2. set the fire up so you can lay a few FLAT fairly thick and wide board over the fire I use old barn planks take the planks and lay them cris-cross over the fire make sure you have a couple of thick logs under neath 3. load the top of the board with a couple good shovel fulls of coal 4. leave your air controls wide wait for things to get cooking then set your stove for "nominal operation" by the time the boards burn though the coal will be good and pre-heated and when it drops down into the fire off it goeson my stove this process takes about 20m much quicker then shoving it in one shovel and a time and waiting for the fire to catch up after about 20 to 30 m I go down shake the wood ash out and a load of coal and its set for 6 to 8H

I lay about 5 sheets of newspaper across the grates, maybe some ripped-up cardboard like a pizza box, etc, and then a nice layer of match-light charcoal across the floor of the firebox. Open bottom door totally. Wait about 10 mins for the charcoal to get hot (should start to glow and turn an ash-gray color), then spinkle about a 1 to 2 inch layer of pea, leave bottom door wide open, when pea coal is going strong just fill 'er up and keep it going until April.

Generally people tend to burn the wood fire too long, before throwing the coal on. It's a coal stove, not a wood stove. Light the wood kindling using paper or cardboard under it, KEEP THE ASH DOOR OPEN, when it gets going good and roaring, throw a good deal of coal right on it. You don't need "red hot coals" that take 2 hours to get, from burning 20 large logs, before throwing coal on- that's not necessary. I start my stove every year, with a small pile of kindling, that would barely fill a 5 gallon pail, picked from my back yard - and never use any logs. Keep the ash door open, keep it ROARING, and throw some coal on. Keep the door open, the coal starts crackling and will ignite in about 5-10 minutes. Throw more coal on, keep the door open. In 20 minutes you'll have a coal fire. At that point you can close the ash door and set the draft at 3/4 turn open if it's a rotary draft control.

Provided, I have a good modern stove, and modern double wall stainless chimney. Like the old saying goes, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken crap. To get a coal fire going quickly in 20 minutes, requires a good stove and chimney in the first place, that's the premise.

coalcracker wrote:Generally people tend to burn the wood fire too long, before throwing the coal on. It's a coal stove, not a wood stove. Light the wood kindling using paper or cardboard under it, KEEP THE ASH DOOR OPEN, when it gets going good and roaring, throw a good deal of coal right on it. You don't need "red hot coals" that take 2 hours to get, from burning 20 large logs, before throwing coal on- that's not necessary. I start my stove every year, with a small pile of kindling, that would barely fill a 5 gallon pail, picked from my back yard - and never use any logs. Keep the ash door open, keep it ROARING, and throw some coal on. Keep the door open, the coal starts crackling and will ignite in about 5-10 minutes. Throw more coal on, keep the door open. In 20 minutes you'll have a coal fire. At that point you can close the ash door and set the draft at 3/4 turn open if it's a rotary draft control.

Provided, I have a good modern stove, and modern double wall stainless chimney. Like the old saying goes, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken crap. To get a coal fire going quickly in 20 minutes, requires a good stove and chimney in the first place, that's the premise.

Or you could simply start the fire with charcoal. But you can make it as complicated as you want.

I have a chubby and I stuff 7 balled up pages of my favorite fish wrap and about 9- 3x3 x 9 pieces of red oak in and light it..keeping the bottom of the door cracked upen and the damper open wide...15 mins later shake one scoop of nut coal all over it...wat 5 mins and shake another scoop (8) lbs over it..15 mins later close down the front air feed and rear damper and whalaaaaa.... its warming the room right up!

Knowing full well never to add Charcoal, Lighter fluid or Gasoline to my stove..

I'm kinda new to this but here's how I start mine. I take one of those fire starting sticks break it in two pieces light them both put one in the front of the firebox and one in the rear. I have lots of small dry pieces of wood I saved from splitting earlier in the year. I throw a bunch of that on then put the air to it. Once that has caught on well then I start slowly putting the coal to it. Seems to work out ok this way for me.

I start my old surdiac by putting two propane torches in the area where you collect ashes and igniting it from the bottom up. It take's 30 to 45 minutes but it works and the house doesn't get all smokey. (I have a very strong downdraft as it's a tall chimney so it's tough to get the flow reversed)

I put a double layer of bit egg on the back half of the grate. Ash door vent open, baro. dampner closed, pile of small kindling from 1/4" sticks to 1" sticks on the leading edge of the coal. Lit a little piece of fire starter block under the sticks and closed the fire box door. An hour later raked the coal bed out and added a second layer. Surprisingly the second layer when added didn't make a lot of smoke out the stack as I expected. Set the baro. dampner and closed the ash vent. House has been very warm the last 6 hrs. and it's still burning very well with zero visible smoke out the stack.